Friday, November 28, 2008

[India 911] Thank You!

It's not easy to start blogging & writing in this kind of situation. Different feelings come and mix together in my heart, in my mind. The Christmas songs have been played already in our house everyday from morning until night. My heart has liquified into December season and has flown following the rhythm of the everlast songs. But suddenly the 'Mumbai Terrorist Attacks' happened. Lots of innocent people lost their lives.

I really need to say Thank You to all of you, friends, for your cares. Thank you for your email, sms, calls and all messages in this blog or my other blog. I really appreciate that. It's so nice to know that lots of people care about us. Many of them, we have never met. Just to let you know, our family is fine. Both my kids are enjoying their extended school holiday. Yesterday, they were supposed to have a half day school and celebrating Thanksgiving Day with their friends and teacher. After the 'Mumbai Attacks' which started on Wednesday night, the school was closed on Thursday. So, they have four days holidays until Sunday.

Until now, we never know what will be happen next.

Wednesday morning (26/11/2008), I decided to do a photo hunting around a place called Byculla in South Mumbai. I printed out some information about Byculla from the internet, grab it, and read it on the way to Byculla. There are lots of interesting places there. First, I visited the beautiful old Gloria Church and met some students of the nearby school that located in the Church area.

Then I visited the old Regal Cinema, Regal Shop (just across the street), and Byculla Market (the largest vegetable market in Mumbai! Owesome...).

I continued my journey, walking to the Mumbai Fire Brigade Headquarter. Woow, they have a vintage fire engine. Cute! Unfortunatelly they did not allow me to taking picture there. Right, for security reason. What a paranoid... (psst, don't you know that I was trained-by experiences-to be a paparazzi?, yeah I took some picture there :P). I'll upload the picture later. I promise.

The oldest fly-overs built in Mumbai. Byculla is also known for Mumbai's first ever "Y-bridge" built across Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road which then splits further to go to Byculla East and West before the Clare Road intersection, thereby forming a Y shape when seen from the air. This was one of the oldest fly-overs built in Mumbai.

It was quite hot that afternoon (and I forgot my cap, silly me), but I could not help myself not to visit to Magen David Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the city. Uh yeah, this is my very first time visiting a Jewish Temple. I came back home with lots of pictures in my camera. I was so happy.

After that, the rest of the day passed by just like the other normal day. Until I went to bed, I didn't know that on the night something terrible was happening out there, in South Mumbai.

Lots of sms came to my husband's handphone that night (please read the blog story written by him) and only one came to mine. It was from the school, announcing that the school will be closed on the next day. No other information, we didn't have any clue. Very early morning we woke up, and found out that there had been a big terror in this city. I was speechless, from the TV screen, to see one beautiful landmark building was on fire. So sad. I love the Mumbai Architecture, I read a lot about their history, and I admire them. The Taj Mahal Hotel, that we visited 3 weeks after we arrived on last January, is the one that made me falling in love to this city. Nothing I could do, just watching the blaze and smoke. Lots of bodies were found inside the hotel. The terrors occured in 10 different places that night, some places are still on terror until now including in the Taj Hotel.

The Beautiful Detail of Taj Mahal Hotel. I took this pictures on January 2008.

Reading the newspaper for the last two mornings make me a bit down. It's so sad that many people suddenly have lost their family members, relatives, friends. Not fair! Until now there are 155 people killed, 327 people wounded. On the other side, I'm so glad watching some of the hostages were walking free out from the hotels. I'm not a person who can talk a lot about terrorism, but regarding this Mumbai Terror, I have to be honest that I'm amazed; how organized and how well prepared the terrorists turning this city up-side down.

During this quiet time, we just spend our time at home together. To kill the boring time, we go outside to the park, supermarket, bookshop nearby our apartment. I didn't cook something special, not for the Thanksgiving. There is no special dinner. I just baked Banana Bread this afternoon, with some chocolate chips and walnuts. Nothing special.

Everything just like other day, and we'll never forget to thank God for His Blessing.

------------------------------------I've just pressed 'publish post' button, then I check my mailbox... ooooh tragic news! Both parents of Patricks friend 'R' were killed in the recent terrorist attacks. We met them all (both parents with 3 kids, 'R' is the youngest one) on our vacation in Amber Fort, Jaipur last month. I'm very sad.

Source: Martha Stewart's Cookies.The origin of hte name of these homey, drop-style cookies is unclear, but recipes for them appear in early-twentieth-century American cookbooks and newspapers. After rolling balls to dough in cinnamon sugar, give them ample room on baking sheets; they spread quite a bit.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Put butter an 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.